Woodworking tables and guides are well known in the prior art, and are described in such patents as U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,288 to DellaPolla on Feb. 26, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,807 to Vacchiano on Aug. 29, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,395 to Trueg on Mar. 28, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,704 to Wolff on Mar. 29, 1988; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,591 to Folkerth on Jan. 22, 1985. Several of the prior art devices teach a table top that tilts, but not for the purposes of facilitating loading of the workpiece. Several of the prior art devices are described as portable. Others of the prior art are described as versatile, being able to cut a workpiece in a variety of different ways. Others of the prior art are described as precise. None of the prior art devices, however, includes all of these advantages at once. As such, there is a need for such a device.
Clearly there is a need for a table based tool that is very inexpensive and simple to build, is highly portable, being usable in the field as well as in a fixed location such as a woodworking shop, has the flexibility to move the work surface to various angles between horizontal and vertical, and enables accurate and repeatable cuts in both rip and crosscut modes. The needed invention would have the ability to mount and dismount the workpiece with respect to the cutting surface without lifting it, making it easier to use.
Such a needed device would have a relatively simple structural means for holding a tool in either of two alternate operating directions and to provide means by which the direction of use of the tool may be quickly and easily changed, and by which the tool may be brought to bear upon the workpiece to produce highly accurate and repeatable work results. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages over the prior art.